Opinion: Scream is a Smashing Success

What’s your favorite scary movie? Well, if you said the new Scream, I could see why. When I first saw the trailers for the new Scream, I was very skeptical. My belief going in was that they were going to shove in old characters from previous movies, with a very generic plot, for a quick cash grab. However, I am happy to report that I was sorely mistaken.

Taking place 25 years after the events of the original Scream, the story follows our newly introduced protagonist, Sam Carpenter. Following an attack on her sister by Ghostface, Sam comes home to Woodsboro in hopes of getting to the bottom of this serial killer mystery. She recruits the help of some of the franchise’s familiar faces and an assortment of newly introduced characters to try and crack the case.

Fans have given the movie the informal title of Scream 5 to simplify things, but after seeing the movie, I understand why it shares the same name as the original. The film does an excellent job of returning to basics while paying homage to its original cast. It introduces new and invigorating characters that don’t feel like cheap replacements. The mystery behind the identity of the killer is very familiar territory for the franchise, yet, I found myself guessing incorrectly and consistently being on the edge of my seat, wondering who the killer could be and when they would strike.

One rather odd concept this movie tackled was the idea of what defines a horror movie and what makes one great. In the first movie, we received the iconic list of rules of how to survive a horror movie. This movie tackles the standard expectations of a horror movie reviewing all the different tropes the first left untouched. This movie went above being just a call back to being all-in on the idea of referencing several different films and directors in the horror genre.

While the dialogue sometimes felt forced and out of place in the casual conversations, I enjoyed many of the self roasts the franchise threw at itself and some of its weaker titles. They also tacked the newly popular category of requels as seen with the new Halloween, where a movie changes certain aspects of the story while also building off its original.

Scream had my mind going into full Sherlock Holmes mode trying to solve the case. Unlike many other movies with generic plot points lately, this movie had me thinking that anything could happen at any time and that not one character was safe from being hunted down. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of the franchise or the horror genre in general. While it isn’t terribly scary and won’t make you jump out of your seat in fear, the new Scream doesn’t need cheap tricks to make you feel the suspense of the situation. My only question leaving the theater after watching was how are they going to top this?